Towards the end of dumping in the North sea: An example of effective international problem solving?

This article seeks to elucidate two main questions: whether the Oslo cooperation has solved the dumping problems effectively and how its effectiveness has been obtained. It is concluded that the cooperation has been more of a ‘success’ than a ‘failure’ since the problems the convention was designed for will shortly be solved. This can be explained, first, by the fact that compared to, for instance, land-based emissions, the dumping problem was ‘benign’ from the outset. In addition the problem became increasingly politically and intellectually ‘benign’ over time. Second, changes in the institutional setting, leadership and the North Sea conferences contributed to overcome the least enthusiastic states.